NTscanner.com

Stefano DellaVigna
UC Berkeley and NBER

­ Ethan Kaplan
IIES, Stockholm University

Does media bias affect voting? We analyze the entry of Fox News in cable markets and its impact on voting. Between October 1996 and November 2000, the conservative Fox News Channel was introduced in the cable programming of 20 percent of U. S. towns. Fox News availability in 2000 appears to be largely idiosyncratic, conditional on a set of controls. Using a data set of voting data for 9,256 towns, we investigate if Republicans gained vote share in towns where Fox News entered the cable market by the year 2000. We find a significant effect of the introduction of Fox News on the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000. Republicans gained 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the towns that broadcast Fox News. Fox News also affected voter turnout and the Republican vote share in the Senate. Our estimates imply that Fox News convinced 3 to 28 percent of its viewers to vote Republican, depending on the audience measure. The Fox News effect could be a temporary learning effect for rational voters, or a permanent effect for nonrational voters subject to persuasion.

P.S. I do remember the conclusion in <Freakonomics> written by Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner that was on the basis of lots of election campaign data was “what really matters for a political candidate in not how much you spend; what matters is who you are”. In another word, money cannot buy election, which is in sharp contrast to the truism. As we know, every channel in America has his own stand, conservative or liberal, Demecratic or Republican. The money for campaign does not affact Fox News or other news channels? I really have no idea about what the campaign money goes for.

Looks like I’m a day too late in sharing this site with you all given the number of track backs I see, have no idea how I missed it on BoingBoing. You may have seen the technical Illustrator pieces in the past such as Hulsey’s work but I never ever fathomed creating photo-realistic images of people! Take a look for yourself and check out the mind blowing work done by the Illustrator artists. From afar you can’t tell the difference, it’s only when you look up close and see the various shapes they used to create the different body parts, only then are you able to discern the difference (hard borders between the different shapes). For example, check out the Jolie piece done by Forrest. The eyes, nose and lips are near perfect, the only way you can tell it’s a drawing is the jawline and the ear… really amazing stuff.

written by Darren Chan

Highlighting the risks of a “slowdown” in the property market, the chancellor has called on mortgage providers to be more responsible in their lending.

Interviewed in Thursday’s Daily Mail, Alistair Darling said some banks and building societies have been fuelling an “unsustainable” boom in house prices.

The comments came as the International Monetary Fund predicted that the American sub-prime mortgage market crash would spread to Europe

It said in a new report that “there would clearly be a sizeable impact on the housing markets in the event of a widespread credit crunch”.

But Darling insisted that Britain is well-placed to weather the storm.

“I am confident we can get through this, but we are going to go through a turbulent period,” he said.

“That is why I downgraded my expectations for growth quite sharply because of what is happening in the United States and in Europe as a whole.”

“While there is likely to be a correction in the housing market “what you want to avoid is a very rapid unplanned adjustment,” Darling added.

“Our economy is quite heavily influenced by housing because we have such a high level of home ownership.

“The housing market will slow down but that is a relative thing because our housing market has been growing so strongly.

“Most people would agree that unsustainable house price inflation is not good for individuals and is not good for the economy.”
Lending

Following last month’s Northern Rock crisis, in which the Bank of England had to bail out the lender with emergency funding because of its over-exposure to the American market, the chancellor said the Financial Services Authority would be asking “more searching questions” of City institutions.

“The FSA needs to look at how it regulates banks and whether the alarm bells should have rung much earlier,” Darling said.

He added that it should also be asking banks “what’s your fallback position?” if repayments are not made.

“I think that lenders need to be clear that firstly somebody can afford to meet the repayments whatever they are – that they haven’t overstretched themselves,” he said.

“We have got to make sure we have a far better surveillance system to spot these problems and take action to head them off.”

And he said banks should not rely solely on the advice of credit ratings agencies, who should “simply be giving advice to companies”, when making lending decisions

“People shouldn’t think that if they [the ratings agencies] say it’s okay, that it is okay.”
CGT

Meanwhile Darling appeared to be digging his heals in over the changes to capital gains tax announced in his pre-Budget report last week.

Reports had suggested that the business community is increasingly hopeful that he will rethink his plans to introduce a flat rate of of 18 per cent, which critics have said will damage small businesses.

Former Labour deputy chief whip George Mudie, a close ally of the prime minister, had called for a delay on the proposal to end the taper relief that led to the tax being levied at just 10 per cent in some cases.

And employers’ groups were thought to have been encouraged by two meetings on Wednesday with business secretary John Hutton, who apparently agreed to relay their concerns to the chancellor.

But Darling indicated that he would be sticking by the changes, due to come into force next April.

“It is not a tax on entrepreneurship,” he claimed. “It was striking that nearly 75 per cent of those who pay CGT need an accountant to tell them how to calculate their liability.

“That tells you it is quite complex, so going for a simplified rate is hugely beneficial. If you look at the rate internationally, it is competitive.”

“The goal was to narrow the differential between taxes on income and capital,” he added. “I wanted to keep it as low as possible.”

Speaking at Treasury questions in the Commons on Thursday, shadow chancellor George Osborne called for a “U-turn”.

“Millions of small businesses are going to lose out, millions of employees who have shares in their own company could be at risk and the whole entrepreneurial culture… is under threat,” he said.

However Darling insisted that: “A single rate of capital gains tax is the right thing to do. Therefore I intend to proceed with the changes that we are making.”

Many of us rely on coffee to get us going in the mornings, wake us up in the afternoons, and prepare us for that special business meeting. Go ahead, have a cup of coffee. It’s much healthier than you may be thinking right now.

Coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world. No matter where you go, coffee is usually available. Yet, until recently there’s been very little research on the effects of coffee on our health. The researcher’s are waking up however. There have recently been studies completed on a variety of health benefits to drinking that simply delicious cup of coffee.

In a study in Italy, it was proven that that brewed coffee contains many antioxidants and consumption of antioxidant-rich brewed coffee may inhibit diseases caused by oxidative damages. When compared to other caffeine containing beverages like tea and cocoa, coffee proved to be the best in helping to prevent disease.

Caffeine in Coffee - Good or Bad?

The caffeine in coffee has often been a source of concern for many. Most people have problems sleeping when they drink coffee right before bedtime. Others will drink coffee to give them that boost of energy caffeine provides. Some even feel their heart rate increase if they drink too much coffee.

Did you know there are also benefits to the caffeine found in coffee? Coffee intake ( due to the caffeine) was associated with a significantly lower risk for Alzheimer’s Disease, independently of other possible confounding variables. These results, with future prospective studies, may have a major impact on the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.

Another benefit of drinking coffee has been studied in China. Their research clinically proved the caffeine in coffee helps to prevent Parkinson’s disease. Many of us have been led to believe that caffeine is bad for us. True enough, large quantities may hurt us, but the evidence is strong for the benefits it provides.

Coffee - Healthy Tonic for the Liver?

Studies completed in Japan indicated that people who drink more than a cup of coffee a day are less likely to develop liver cancer than those who do not, Japanese researchers say. Coffee also helped lower the risk of cirrhosis of the liver. Chlorogenic acid present in coffee beans has been proven in studies to also reduce the risk of liver cancer.

Harvard Medical School completed a study in 2004 that strongly suggest coffee has preventative qualities for Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. The authors found an inverse association between coffee intake and type 2 diabetes after adjustment for age, body mass index, and other risk factors. Total caffeine intake from coffee and other sources was associated with a statistically significantly lower risk for diabetes in both men and women. These data suggest that long-term coffee consumption is associated with a statistically significantly lower risk for type 2 diabetes.

Coffee and Physical Fitness

The amounts of water, carbohydrate and salt that athletes are advised to consume during exercise are based upon their effectiveness in preventing both fatigue as well as illness due to hyperthermia, dehydration or hyper hydration. The old issues concerning coffee and caffeine were that it acts as a diuretic, thus causing more fluid loss during activity. Studies have caused researchers to re think this point. These studies suggest that consuming caffeine does not have this effect and can even have beneficial effects on keeping the body fit.

Caffeine does not improve maximal oxygen capacity directly, but could permit the athlete to train at a greater power output and/or to train longer. It has also been shown to increase speed and/or power output in simulated race conditions. These effects have been found in activities that last as little as 60 seconds or as long as 2 hours. There is less information about the effects of caffeine on strength; however, recent work suggests no effect on maximal ability, but enhanced endurance or resistance to fatigue. There is no evidence that caffeine ingestion before exercise leads to dehydration, ion imbalance, or any other adverse effects.

What about the negative effects of coffee?

Coffee is enjoyed as a drink by millions of people worldwide. It contains caffeine, which is a mild stimulant, and in many people coffee enhances alertness, concentration and performance. Although it contains a wide variety of substances, it is generally accepted that caffeine is responsible for many of coffee’s physiological effects. Because caffeine influences the central nervous system in a number of ways and because a small number of people may be particularly sensitive to these effects, some people have attributed coffee to all sorts of health problems.

Caffeine is not recognized as a drug of abuse and there is no evidence for caffeine dependence. Some particularly sensitive people may suffer mild symptoms of withdrawal after sudden abstention from coffee drinking. A 150ml cup of instant coffee contains about 60mg caffeine, filtered coffee slightly more; for those who like coffee but are sensitive to caffeine, the decaffeinated beverage contains only 3mg per cup.

Coffee drinking can help asthma sufferers by improving ventilator function.

There is no evidence that coffee drinking is a risk for the development of cancer. For several types of cancer there is disagreement between studies but again, other aspects of lifestyle may be implicated. There is even a strong suggestion that coffee may have a protective effect against colon cancer. A possible explanation may lie in the many antioxidant substances present in coffee and which are currently subjects of active research.

In some sensitive individuals, ingestion of coffee after a period of abstinence may cause a temporary rise in blood pressure but there is no hypertensive effect in the long term. Coffee made by the Scandinavian method of boiling or by the cafetiere method may cause mild elevation of plasma cholesterol concentration in some people, but instant, filter coffee, and liquid coffee extract have no such effects. Overall there is no influence of coffee drinking on heart disease risk.

There is no sound scientific evidence that modest consumption of coffee has any effects on outcomes of pregnancy or on the wellbeing of the child. Bone health is not affected by coffee drinking. Adverse effects in some published studies have been attributed to aspects of lifestyle that are often shared by coffee drinkers, such as smoking and inactivity. Coffee drinking can help asthma sufferers by improving ventilator function.

There is no reason for people who are prone to ulcers to avoid coffee.

Research continues and must be subjected to critical scrutiny and re-evaluation. At the present time, there is no reason to forego the pleasurable experience of moderate coffee drinking for health reasons. Go ahead? Have a cup of delicious coffee!

Hilda Maria is a stay at home mother of five, who enjoys writing about coffee and giving custom coffee mugs and coffee cups as gifts!

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can attend a college or university in the United States. Our subject this week is government rules and requirements for entering the United States to study.

Every foreign student who has been accepted to study in this country must have a legal document called a visa from the United States government. A visa permits a foreign citizen to travel to the United States and request permission to enter the country. The rules for getting a visa can be found on the State Department Web site. The address is unitedstatesvisas dot g-o-v. United States visas is all one word. Another State Department Web site for students from other countries is educationusa dot g-o-v.

If you are requesting a visa for the first time, you may have to appear at the American Embassy in your country to talk to an official. Each student should communicate with the Embassy to find out if such an interview is needed and when it can take place.

It is important to apply for the visa early. State Department officials say national security is the most important issue in deciding if a person will be permitted to enter the United States. Officials must find out if a student is on any list of people with possible links to terrorists.

Embassies can not issue a visa more than 90 days before the start of the educational program in the United States. If you are a student studying in the United States for the first time, you will not be permitted to enter the country more than thirty days before the start of your classes.

Foreign students accepted at an American school will receive a document called a Certificate of Eligibility. The State Department says each student must enter the country using the certificate provided by the school he or she will be attending. It is a violation of the law to enter the country on one school’s certificate but attend another school.

You are permitted to stay in the United States on a student visa for the length of your period of study. That means you can stay as long as you are a full-time student. Your college or university will provide the government with reports about your education as long as you continue to study there. We will have more information about that next week.

Our Foreign Student Series is online, at voaspecialenglish dot com.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Mario Ritter.

Chinese people always appreciate the purposes and principles of Olympic ideal, support the efforts of Olympic Games to promote world peace. The Chinese Government and people are doing our the utmost/best to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and shooting at the pageant with advocating Olympic ideal, sparkpluging world peace and enhancing the relationships among the world. Olympic spirit are gonna spread again in orient cultural ancient China. The government and people of China have always admired the purposes and principles of the Olympic spirit and supported the efforts made by the Olympics in promoting world peace. The Chinese government and people are doing our utmost in preparation for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It is our hope to make it a grand gathering that will carry forward the Olympic spirit, promote world peace and enhance the friendship among people of the world, so that the Olympic spirit will flourish once again, this time in China, an oriental country with an ancient civilization.

Unlike traditional residential real estate mortgages, real estate investment financing is way more creative and offers more options than you think. The golden rule in real estate investment is OPM (Other People? Money).

I have enough money; shouldn? I buy my real estate investment for cash? No, I absolutely advice against investing large sums of cash into a single real estate investment. There are two reasons why not. First, you give away most of your profits by not leveraging your real estate investment. Second, it is far too risky to put every egg into one basket.

Let me explain the leverage issue for a moment. I will give you an example of a $100,000 investment property that typically increases its value (appreciates) by 7% average a year. Maybe more, maybe less depending where you live. Paying all cash for this property will yield in a 7% appreciation profit plus the net profit from renting the place. Now you?e looking at roughly 15% of returns.

If you?e conservative with your investments you might be satisfied with this kind of a return. These days you might get equal or better returns with other conservative investments minus the hassle of being a landlord. But you don? mind being a landlord, because you understand and utilize the leveraging method with financing your real estate investment.

With the example above you will make roughly $15,000 a year in profits from your investment. Now let? take a closer look at what leveraging can do for you. Today a typical real estate investor can get financing as high as 95% - 97% of the purchase price. Occasionally 100% financing is available as well. But this would be totally unfair in this example to compare this with all cash purchasing.

15% return sounds like a lot, but wait till you see this. Let? assume that the rental income will cover all your expenses including the mortgage payments. Taking the same example from before your net return would be the 7% appreciation profits of your property. This would translate into a $7,000 a year profit. With a 95% financing in place you would get $7,000 return on $5,000 (your 5% down payment) invested. This is a whopping 140% return on investment.

With the same $100,000 you can go out there and get 20 investment properties, finance 95% of it and make an amazing $140,000 profit a year. This beats the projected $15,000 profits with an all cash transaction any day.

Of course you will have a lot of trouble to get financing for 20 properties in a single year. Typically 5-6 new rental property mortgages are the maximum lenders will allow these days. This is the signal to get creative with your financing structures.

In this case sellers financing would be your key to achieve your goal of maximum leverage of your investment dollars. Despite the message from all these late night infomercials, seller financing is harder to get than they want you to make believe it is.

It all depends on the seller? ability to offer seller financing and the seller? motivation. Only about 1 out of 20 properties for sale are able to get seller financing. That means that there? no mortgage balance on the property. From this narrow selection the seller must be motivated to sell under these conditions. This could be tax reasons, time constraints, personal reasons and many more.

As you can see this translates into a lot of work to achieve your goals. But let me tell you one thing. This separates the tire kicker real estate investors from the real go-getters. Wouldn? you agree that a little bit of hard work and determination is well worth it to build a real estate empire?

I think it is well worth the trouble and hard work. At the end of the day you keep building your real estate investment portfolio and sooner than later you will be able to cash in.

Sincerely,
Peter Dobler

Since 1990, there has been tremendous growth in the use of computers by students. While in 1990, the average number of hours a student spent on the computer was about one hour per week, this number grew to nearly four hours per week by 1995, and to approximately 20 hours per week by the year 2000.

This significant growth in the use of computers by students in the 1990’s can be attributed to several factors, including widespread usage, lower prices, and technological and social developments. Nowadays, computers are widely used by students for word processing, book keeping, multimedia presentations, and access to the Internet for both research and communications. Additionally, since 1990, due to competition and technological advances, computer hardware and software prices, as well as Internet usage charges have dropped significantly. Finally, technological developments and changes in social habits in the 1990’s have played a major role in this tremendous growth in the use of computers. Today’s society relies heavily on computers for immediate access to the news and for entertainment, including, listening to music, watching movies and sport events, and playing computer games.

While computers are of great assistance to the students, and therefore, are indispensable tools, they also pose some challenges. The biggest challenge that many students face is discipline in the use of this powerful device. That is, students need to have the discipline of not allowing themselves to be lured by the entertaining aspects of this wonderful tool-aspects that can result in addiction to computer games or viewing of undesirable material on the Internet. That is to say, students need to use this powerful tool with great wisdom!

With the rapid development of society, almost everyone wants to be educated.  However,  many people hold an erroneous:view towards education. They think, probably most parents do, that through education, they will, or their children will; turn out to be either prominent scholars or rich merchants. TO them, education Suggests merely fame or riches.
The aim of education, in my understanding, is set upon deeper and more important mental accomplishments andmoral culture. When we study at school or at the university, we are certainly aiming at a profound learning of various subjects, for that is one of the essential things and a fundamental indispensable for building up our future career. Equally important is the moral education which we must receive’either at school or at the university, for building*toUr character.
On the other hand, education does not simply mean “going to school.”We cannot consider ourselves well-educated and superior just because we are the fortunate ones who can go somewhere to study, thus looking down upon those who cannot get such golden chances as ours. It is a truth universally known that that a doctor is different from a blacksmith is not because the former has received higher education and the latter has not.
To conclude my essay, I would like to quote an old saying “Learn whatever it may be, whenever you can,and you will, “and this, I think, is the true meaning of education.

Computers

One of the greatest advancements in modern technology has been the invention of computers. Computers are changing the way people live and work. They are already widely used in industry, business and in academic institutions.

With the popularization of science and technology, computers have found an increasingly wide application in all fields. A computer can do a lot of work. It is capable of doing extremely complicated work in all fields of learning. It can solve the most complex mathematics problems. Computers are able to store large amounts of information, which can be recalled rapidly at any time.

The truth of the matter, however, is that any new technology has a “dark”side. The problems caused by the use of computers are quite different. For example, assembly lines will be a slow process to retain workers to build and operate new equipment. Nevertheless, the dark side of the computer shouldn’t mean that we should abandon the use of computers.

Technology only can make the real work cheaper, faster, and less tedious. It cannot solve problems.